


together.

by NOiSE_wav



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, M/M, any critique is welcome tho! just please be gentle www, first time writing canon charas so ;;; sorry if its bad/wrong!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 00:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13776228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NOiSE_wav/pseuds/NOiSE_wav
Summary: Keith crumbles under the pressure of leading Voltron and Lance begins to doubt his worth as a paladin.





	1. troubles.

**Author's Note:**

> a fic that’s based off the song ‘broken’ by lovelytheband! looking to turn this into a fic series! this is also my first time writing a fic for canon characters, so any critiques are welcome, but please be nice when giving them; i’m still learning!

> I like that you’re broken
> 
> Broken like me
> 
> Maybe that makes me a fool

Keith had always been one to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. Was it pride that kept him from asking for help? Maybe — but there was more to it than that. Maybe he refused to ask for help because in his mind, he had already been rejected. He had faced too many rejections in his life; he knew rejection better than anyone else, and so he rejected himself before he allowed others a chance to do it. He won’t be rejected again. He won’t let them do that to him again.

When Lance compares his worries to Keith, they seemed so.. miniscule. Sure, he openly complained about his problems, but they were disguised by his theatrics so well that no one offered to actually  _help_  him. His pleas were plain as day, and yet it seemed that everyone remained blind to his plight.

Keith didn’t want help (seemingly), and people always brushed off Lance. Both were ostracized in this sense; one by choice, and the other due to his inability to convey himself properly. Everyone had something they were good at, but.. what did Lance have? He always thought of himself as a sharpshooter, and lately everyone else had been complimenting his shooting skills, but.. weren’t those just words of pity? No one  _actually_  saw him as the sharpshooter — they were just saying that to get him to shut up. It made him feel happy beyond words in the moment — like he had  _actually_  been recognized for his skills, but.. maybe he wasn’t what he chalked himself up to be. Anyone could do this — hell, they could probably do it BETTER than he could. He wasn’t needed anymore — especially since there were now more than just five paladins.

He wasn’t needed anymore.

* * *

Keith didn’t want to be the leader. He didn’t want it — he was terrible at it! To take Shiro’s place? To pilot the black lion? All of those things were tossed at him by the group without so much as a second thought as to what  _HE_  wanted. He didn’t want this! He didn’t ask for it!

Crumpling down on the training floor ground, he begins to repeatedly punch an already shutdown robot. “I! Never! Asked! For! This!” with each word comes a blow to the metallic being. Eventually the head of the AI comes undone due to the force of his punches, revealing its inner circuitry. His breathing is ragged, and eventually he just hunches over it, too tired to move. Lance wants to step in from the shadows to say something, but he knows he’ll just get yelled at for spying, and so he retreats, but…

He knew exactly what Keith meant. When he pilots the black lion, Shiro always has to step in and command the paladins. Shiro was what kept them in check — what kept them a  **team**. Keith knows it too, and that’s exactly why it angers him so much. He was supposed to lead them, and even the chance to do that — to prove himself, was robbed from him. So here he was — just the hot-blooded paladin that always went off on his own. The hot-blooded paladin whose judgement was clouded. The hot-blooded paladin that endangered his comrades because he couldn’t focus on the big picture.

He wasn’t, and never will be, a leader.

* * *

They both had their struggles, and they both knew of the other’s struggles — neither one of them confided in each other, though — it wasn’t in their nature. It wasn’t who they were — but during that fight on the Galran ship when everyone was yelling at Lance, Keith saw the stress take its toll on him. Lance looked down at his gun for just a moment, with eyes that wondered if he even deserved to  _hold_  it, before he resumed shooting. Try as he might, even  _he_  couldn’t keep up his goofy, carefree persona all the time.

And Keith.. after Shiro kept continually chiming in — after Keith wasn’t allowed to chase after the ship because he was the ‘head’ of Voltron, Lance could tell that Keith was beginning to question his role as ‘leader’.

* * *

One morning, Lance woke up to an empty room, but he noticed a small dent in the wall that wasn’t there before. The sound of running water told him exactly who was the culprit, and so he knocked on the bathroom door three times before walking inside only to find Keith washing bloodied red knuckles. He’s not sure what to say at first — not sure if anything  _can_  be said, but he tries anyway. 

“I’m surprised I slept through the punch — considering what this castle is made out of, I’m impressed you even made a dent.” His attempts at a normal conversation are immediately shot down though, as Keith gives him a curt, “I’m not in the mood, Lance,” before beginning to wrap his knuckles in some bandages.

Putting his hands up to show that he meant no harm, Lance continues to try and get Keith to talk to him. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry, I just.. I just wanted to check up on you. You were the person who wanted to find Shiro more than anything, but now that he’s back, you just seem.. even more frustrated than before.” A yell of anger and frustration leaves the red paladin as he turns to look at the Lance with accusatory eyes.

“I said I’m not in the MOOD! I don’t need you telling me I’m a terrible leader too, Lance — I already know! I’m just the hot-blooded one who puts everyone in danger because I can’t work as a team!”

“Keith, that’s not what I’m saying! I was just worried about you-”

“Worry about yourself then! What’s with  _you_  lately, huh?! You’ve been missing all your shots! Pidge almost got taken on our last mission because you couldn’t do your job!”

Keith was no sharpshooter, but that was a bullet that he didn’t miss. His words pierced Lance’s heart and went straight through him. Dark blue eyes widen in disbelief for a moment, but eventually they sink low as he does everything he can to avoid Keith’s look.

“You’re right. Sorry, I’ll leave you alone now,” is what he said, but in reality what he needed more than anything was for  _him_  to be left alone His worst fears were coming true — he wasn’t good enough to protect his teammates — his  _friends_. And now that Keith had voiced them? Now that he had acknowledged Lance’s demons? Who’s to say that the others wouldn’t follow behind? In war, you want your best fighters on the field…

And Lance was no longer one of those fighters.


	2. sharpshooter and leader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They both had their worries but maybe - just maybe, they could get through it together.

Lance had grown distant from the other paladins. No cheeky remarks after getting complimented, no fishing for praise, there was just.. nothing. He spent his days in the training room, but that only seemed to further his frustrations and anger rather than expend them. Keith knew he was the reason for this, but he didn’t want to say anything.. he didn’t want to admit that he was wrong about yet another thing.

When he overhears Pidge and Hunk talk about how they’re worried about Lance though, he lets out a frustrated groan and goes off in search of the blue paladin. Part of him does it because he’s the leader — he needs to make sure that everyone is okay, but another part of him… Another part of him does it because he wants to make sure that  _Lance_  is okay.

After arriving at the training deck, he says, “Stop training sequence,” and immediately the robots stop dead in their tracks. Obviously this catches Lance’s attention, and so he turns to look at the other.

“What are you doing, Keith? I’m training.”

“Yeah, training too  _much_. What’s gotten into you? You’re worrying Pidge and Hunk.”

“Well,  _obviously_  my aim isn’t good enough for some of us, so I decided to work on that; shouldn’t you be happy?”

He hates admitting he’s wrong, but he didn’t expect Lance to take his words to heart so much. He looks around awkwardly for a bit, fidgeting with his fingers every now and again before finally letting out a sigh.

“Alright, I’m sorry - is that what you want to hear?” His response is gruff and insincere - it’s everything that Lance  **doesn’t**  want to hear.

“No, that’s  _not_  what I want to hear. Just leave me alone! You of all people should be happy to finally hear that.”

The definitive tone in Lance’s voice throws Keith off guard. He thought it was just a snide comment at the time, but apparently there was more to it than he suspected. Lance tries to walk away, but Keith grabs his shoulder and turns him so that they can face each other. “What is going on with you?! You’re acting like it’s the end of the world-” and then, there’s a sight that he never expected to see.

Lance was crying.

Worried and distraught more than he was angry, he puts a hand on the other’s cheek to get a better look. “Whoa whoa whoa — what’s wrong, Lance? Why are you crying? If it’s because of what I said I’m sorry — really!” His hand is pushed away though as Lance tries to hide his face and wipes the tears away on his own. “I don’t care about that anymore! Besides, it doesn’t even matter if you’re sorry or not because you’re **right**! If I can’t provide cover fire what good am I to the team?! What good am I to you?! I can’t pilot my lion, I can’t shoot — I can’t do anything!” Oh god, he was crying, what do you do when someone’s crying?! Keith wasn’t a leader — he could never be. He makes his teammates cry and then doesn’t know how to fix it, but.. Shiro would know. Shiro would know how to fix  _all_  of this.

And in that sense, Keith could relate. He could pilot the black lion all he wanted, but he would never be as good a leader as Shiro — never as good a  _person_ , as Shiro.

Now was no time for self-pity, though. His body moves without thought and he immediately pulls Lance into a hug, wrapping one arm around his waist while letting the other idly run through his hair. Maybe it was his own doubts playing in his mind that made him do that. Maybe he was pushing his own worries onto Lance, but.. a leader was always there for his teammates, right?

Sniffling, Lance wipes his nose and eyes before weakly pushing Keith away. “What are you doing? Are you staying here just so you can laugh at me?” Did Lance really see him as such a cruel, heartless monster..? Memories of Allura’s glares at him when finding out he was part Galran resurface, and his eyes twinge a bit as his heart aches at the bitter memory.

“I’m not going to laugh, I just.. want to be there for you, okay?”

A moment of silence falls between the two, and Lance is the first to break it.

“…I’m really pathetic, huh. Here you are having to deal with leading Voltron and I’m crying over spilled milk…” He doesn’t recognize it at first, but when Lance brings up leading Voltron Keith stops breathing for a moment. His chest tightens, and he balls his hands into fists. “I’m.. sorry I said all those things about you. I wasn’t acting like a leader. I wasn’t acting like-”

“Shiro,” Lance finishes. The red paladin’s eyes go wide for a moment, taken aback by what was just said. He always knew he wasn’t fit to lead. He always knew he wouldn’t be Shiro -  _couldn’t_ , be Shiro. Those shoes were far too big for him to fill in just one lifetime.

While he’s lost in his thoughts, Lance puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder, squeezing it as if to reassure him that he’s right there with him. “Keith, you’re  _not_  Shiro. You’re your own leader.”

“Yeah, a leader that almost got us all killed because he couldn’t see the big picture…”

“…Maybe so, but you’re learning. We all have to start somewhere.”

Silence, and then,

“…I know I’ll mess up a lot.. but until I learn to lead us and control the black lion properly — no, even  _after_  that.. can I count on you to watch my back?”

And now, Lance is the one with eyes wide in awe and mouth agape. His heart pounds against his chest, but he eventually settles for that goofy smile that never fails to lighten the mood. As goofy as it was though, Keith knew it was genuine. He knew Lance enough to realize even  _that_  much.

“Of course you can; we’re in this together!”

And then, there’s that gentle smile that only Lance has seen.

“Thanks, sharpshooter.”

“Anytime, leader.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was my first time writing canon/canon. i love voltron so much, so i did my best to try and keep them as ic as possible! i hope you enjoyed; feedback is welcomed and greatly appreciated, tysm for reading this through to the end! <3


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